As Primary Election season sets in, a number of statewide races will have voters making some serious decisions at the polls. Few contests hold more consequence for the prosperity of the state as a whole than the one for Superintendent of Public Instruction.

Only twice since 1972 has the state of North Carolina supported a Democratic candidate for president. But if a years-long trend in party registration continues, Republicans could have an easier time holding on to the Tar Heel state and its 15 electoral votes this fall.

The vigorous debate over the necessity of “Second Amendment sanctuary” resolutions has finally begun to trickle into North Carolina, and elected officials are increasingly being asked to weigh in on the controversial topic. 

Although voters approved a 2018 ballot measure requiring photo identification at North Carolina polls, voters won’t have to produce IDs during either the March 3 Primary Election or the Nov. 3 General Election. 

The Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians is the only federally recognized Native American tribe in North Carolina, but that could change if a bill currently making its way through Congress meets success. The Lumbee Recognition Act, also known as H.R. 1964, would extend federal recognition to the 55,000-member Lumbee Tribe of North Carolina, ending a 131-year effort to obtain it. 

If you think seems a bit early for candidates to be filing for the 2020 elections, you’re right — a change to state law pushing back North Carolina’s Primary Election from early May to early March means that candidates have already begun filing for a host of offices. 

After months and years of litigation, a Wake County court decided Dec. 2 that North Carolina could proceed with the 2020 elections using newly-drawn congressional maps, and that there would be no delay in the sign-up period for the March 3 Primary Election. 

Christopher Lile, 23, was just months away from graduating to begin a career in wildlife conservation when he first learned that North Carolina has a native wolf population. He was sitting in a senior-year class at Gardner-Webb University, and a Defenders of Wildlife representative was speaking about the red wolf. 

Hemp has only been legal in North Carolina for a couple of years, but already the plant is presenting an issue in the criminal justice system that the legislature is still trying to iron out. 

The small room of the Democratic headquarters for Haywood County was packed Oct. 31 for a speech by the Chief Justice of the North Carolina Supreme Court Cheri Beasley.